Category: Uncategorized
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Flash, Scratch, Ajax: Apple's War on Programming
Any ambitious regulatory scheme will face pressure to expand, in order to protect the flanks of the main regulation against users’ workarounds. Apple’s strategy of regulating which apps can run on the iPhone and iPod is just such a regulation, and over the last week or so Apple has been giving in to the pressure…
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What Open Data Means to Marginalized Communities
Two symbols of this era of open data are President Obama’s Open Governance Initiative, a directive that has led agencies to post their results online and open up data sets, and Ushahidi, a tool for crowdsourcing crisis information. While these tools are bringing openness to governance and crisis response respectively, I believe we have yet…
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iPad: The Disneyland of Computers
Tech commentators have a love/hate relationship with Apple’s new iPad. Those who try it tend to like it, but many dislike its locked-down App Store which only allows Apple-approved apps. Some people even see the iPad as the dawn of a new relationship between people and computers. To me, the iPad is Disneyland. I like…
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CITP Expands Scope of RECAP
Today, we’re thrilled to announce the next version of our RECAP technology, dramatically expanding the scope of the project. Having had some modest success at providing public access to legal documents, we’re now taking the next logical step, offering easy public access to illegal documents. The Internet Archive, which graciously hosts RECAP’s repository of legal…
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CITP is a Google Summer of Code 2010 Mentoring Organization
The Google Summer of Code program provides student stipends for summer work on open source projects. CITP is thrilled to have been chosen as a mentoring organization for 2010, meaning that students will be working on some CITP projects this summer. We think that these projects are very interesting, and potential participants now have the…
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Domain Names Can't Defend Themselves
Today, the Kentucky Supreme Court handed down an opinion in the saga of Kentucky vs. 141 Domain Names (described a while back here on this blog). Here’s the opinion. This case is fascinating. A quick recap: Kentucky attempted a property seizure of 141 domain names allegedly involved in gambling on the theory that the domain…
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Round 2 of the PACER Debate: What to Expect
The past year has seen an explosion of interest in free access to the law. Indeed, something of a movement appears to be coalescing around the issue, due in no small part to the growing Law.gov effort (see the latest list of events). One subset of this effort is our work on PACER, the online…
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Best Practices for Government Datasets: Wrap-Up
[This is the fifth and final post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4)] For our final post in this series, we’ll discuss several issues not touched on by earlier posts, including data signing and the use of certain non-text file formats.…
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Correcting Errors and Making Changes
[This is the fourth post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous posts: 1, 2, 3)] Even cautiously edited datasets sometimes contain errors, and even meticulously produced schemas require refinement as circumstances change. While errors or changes create inconvenience for developers, most developers appreciate and prepare for…
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Labeling Dataset Contents
[This is the third post in a series on best practices for government datasets by Harlan Yu and me. (previous posts)] When the government releases a dataset, citizens ideally will discuss the contents and supply educated feedback. The ability to reference facts and figures in a dataset supports a constructive dialog. Vague concerns are harder…